Blog Category: City

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke joined Congressman Joseph Crowley for a 2010 Census meeting with New York community leaders. Locke and others rallied community leaders from the Bronx and Queens to make a “last call” for New Yorkers to participate in the 2010 Census. Although heavily populated, New York City is traditionally undercounted in the census, which causes the city and state to lose important federal funding. In 2000, only 57 percent of New York City households returned their census forms. Communities around the nation are focusing on getting residents to mail back their forms in a “March to the Mailbox” effort. (Remarks)

In remarks to the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke focused on the ways the Department of Commerce assists American cities, describing the core mission of the department as “making American businesses more innovative at home and more competitive abroad so they can create good jobs in communities throughout America.” Commerce is the lead agency for expanding high-speed Internet and broadband access, building critical economic infrastructure through regional innovation clusters, and increasing U.S. exports through the president’s National Export Initiative. (Remarks)

Super Bowl XLIV will be played Feb. 7 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., a Miami suburb. To commemorate this occasion, the Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau has compiled a collection of facts examining the demographics of the host city, as well as the cities represented by the contenders, in this year’s edition of our nation’s most celebrated sporting event. With the mail-out of 2010 Census and the questionnaires slightly more than a month away, the Census Bureau will run three ads promoting census awareness during the Super Bowl telecast—two during the pregame show and one during the third quarter. (Facts)

Monday, Jan. 4, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will join the Census Bureau in launching the 2010 Census Portrait of America Road Tour, a cross-country, interactive experience designed to educate the public about the importance of participating in the census and mailing back census forms this March. Locke and Census Bureau Director Robert Groves will kick off the national tour in New York City. Meanwhile, 12 regional tours will kick off across the country, including events in Boston and in Los Angeles with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. (More) (Road Trip vehicles) (2010 Census Web site) (Secretary’s blog) (Boston event photo)

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke announced a $15.6 million Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant to reconstruct the St. Louis Municipal Terminal’s South Dock, which was damaged by extensive flooding in 2008. Three local St. Louis businesses served by the port met with Locke and Mayor Francis Slay before a City Hall news conference this morning to discuss the impact of ensuring the continuation of the area’s supply chain of river-related commerce. “Reconstruction of the critically important South Dock saves existing jobs and creates new ones by strengthening local connections to the global marketplace,” Locke said. (More) (Remarks)

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke joined Mayor Michael Nutter in Philadelphia to raise awareness of the upcoming 2010 Census. Speaking at the National Constitution Center, Locke discussed the history of the census and stressed the importance of getting a complete count of all residents in the city where our nation’s Founding Fathers penned the Constitution, which mandates that every person residing in the country be counted every ten years. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah and Deputy Director of the U.S. Census Bureau Thomas L. Mesenbourg joined Locke and Nutter at the event. (2010Census.gov)

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Brian P. McGowan presented a $7.2 million Economic Development Administration (EDA) grant to the city of Anaheim to create jobs in the Anaheim Canyon. The project is expected to create 1,900 jobs and generate $570 million in private investment, according to grantee estimates. EDA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce that partners with distressed communities throughout the United States to foster economic growth and job creation. (More)

At the closing of the 2009 Americas Competitiveness Forum (ACF) in Chile, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin announced that the United States will host the next ACF in Atlanta in the fall of 2010. “I look forward to working with the city of Atlanta, the state of Georgia, the local business community and other stakeholders to convene the 2010 ACF in the Peach State,” Locke said. “The ACF is a unique opportunity for the Americas to work together on issues critical to the economic prosperity of the region.” (More) (ACF 2009 Web site)

The first observance of Labor Day is believed to have been a parade of 10,000 workers on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, organized by Peter J. McGuire, a Carpenters and Joiners Union secretary. By 1893, more than half the states were observing a “Labor Day” on one day or another, and Congress passed a bill to establish a federal holiday in 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill soon afterward, designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day. This edition of Facts for Features highlights the many statistics associated with the annual observance of Labor Day. (More)